The cultural boycott and the outraged artist

August 6th, 2010 • 1 comment Action, News
Tags: artists, BDS, boycott, cultural, mondoweiss

Our fellow BDS activist has a piece published on Mondoweiss:

The cultural boycott and the outraged artist

When you arrive in Israel as an internationally-renowned artist to give a concert or accept a cultural award, it is only natural that you not be spat at and knee-capped by Jews. I say this apropos of the odd comments made over the last couple of months by Margaret Atwood and Suzanne Vega regarding their crossing of the BDS picket line.

In Israel, it is no surprise that people will be polite to you: “Recently I was in Israel. The Israelis I met could not have been more welcoming” (Atwood). You might even meet with excellent Israeli human rights organizations: “I went to Israel, I played two concerts there. I also met with B’Tselem” (Vega). And the general public will discuss politics with you: “I’d been told ahead of time that Israelis would try to cover up the Shadow, but instead they talked about it non-stop” (Atwood). All that is encouraging – after all it is some ‘shadow’ to live under!

Read the rest at Mondoweiss.net…